Kavuk deflected blaster bolt after blaster bolt while trying to recenter himself. The crash of their gunship had left him severely injured and the droids immediately swarming their crash site were not helping.

"General Anurai! I must ask that you retreat to the rendezvous point."

The captain of the squad of clones tried to convince Kavuk for the 5th time in the past 5 minutes. He knew that they were being nothing but a liability to Kavuk. There was no way that there all get out of there alive.

"Captain. I do not..."

"Leave men behind," the captain interrupted. "We understand that, General. But we cannot afford to lose you hear. Please think of the big picture. You are needed by the Republic."

Kavuk wanted to rebuke him but there was nothing that he could say. Staying there was doing nothing more than accepting a death that could be avoided.

Seeing that he had gotten through to Kavuk, the captain turned to the clones.

"Listen up, men! General Anurai is going to meet back up with the other generals at the Acclamators' crash site. We need to support him in getting out of here. Focus your fire on the west and eastern directions!"

"Yes, sir!"

The clones rushed out of the downed LAAT and began their last stand. Kavuk did not allow this opportunity to be wasted. As soon as the attention was focused on the clones, he rushed out of the ship and started speeding north using the Force to enhance his natural speed.

Kavuk ran for hours to reach his destination. He ran into several squads of droids which significantly slowed down his process since he either had to sneak around them if their group was too large or fight his way through them. This caused his injuries to worsen and exhausted his body severely.

By the time he arrived at the rendezvous point, Kavuk was pretty much running on fumes. The only thing that kept him going was knowing that he had to survive this battle. The war was far from over and he would make sure that he saw the end of it.

Kavuk was surprised that he was not the first Jedi to arrive. He was the last. Of the 8 Jedi that were working together for the initial mission, 7 were already present.

"It is good to see, Kavuk," Shaak Ti smiled at seeing that her student survived. She had accepted his death when he had not arrived after so long but was pleasantly surprised to see him still alive.

"Good. It seems that you didn't forget our promise to survive this crazy war," Aayla lightly teased Kavuk to try and ease the mood.

Kavuk looked at his fellow Jedi and saw they were in a similar state as him.

Exhausted.

Injured.

Afraid.

'Like I thought. The droids along the way were stationed as they were for a purpose. Our opponent is planning on fighting us like fellow warriors. They are a predator and hunting us like we are prey.'

"Master Barrek. What is the battle plan?"

Master Barrek was the Jedi placed in command of the entire operation. Even if their fleet had been destroyed, he was still in command. At least officially.

"I am trying to reach Master Kenobi on Muunilinst. They are the closest force that can provide us rescue and our only chance of survival. Until then, we shall hold out in the ships around us."

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

Kavuk nodded before he took a seat to rest. It had been a long day and had yet to end. The one hunting them had yet to show their face.

Just as Kavuk sat down, he heard the unmistakable clanking of thousands of droids. All of the Jedi rushed out of the ship to see what was going on but were surprised to see that they had been surrounded. Around all of the ships were tens of thousands of B1 battle droids and at least a thousand Super Battle Droids.

As soon as they saw the Jedi appear, the droids opened fire.

The Jedi were quick to move. They dodged the hail of blaster fire but were split up due to this.

Kavuk had managed to flee with Master K'Kruhk. The duo was heading deeper and deeper into the ships until they arrived at the one in the very center of the crash site. The other Jedi appeared soon after them except for Master Barrek.

"Agh!"

Everyone heard his scream but almost no one made a move to go after him. Master Barrek was a stoic man. He would only cry out like that to warn the others. His life was already lost.

Barrek's Padawan wanted to rush out and try to save his master but Kavuk held the Padawan back.

"Sha'a Gi. He has fallen. Do not let your master's death be in vain," Shaak Ti tried to advise the young Padawan but it seemed he was not in the mood to listen.

Sha'a Gi broke free of Kavuk's grip and rushed out of the ship with his lightsaber drawn as he let out a warcry. Soon after he emerged, there was a loud crunch noise and the Padawan's warcry was silenced. His fate was the same as his Master's.

"Jedi, you are surrounded. Your armies decimated. Make peace with the Force now, for this is your final hour. But know that I, General Grievous, am not completely without mercy. I will grant you a warrior's death. Prepare!"

"Form up!" Master Mundi gave the order to his fellow Jedi. It seemed that he finally realized what situation they were in.

The Jedi formed a circle leaving no openings. And then they waited.

The Jedi could hear the crunching of General Grevious' feet as he stalked them. Each footstep was like he was stomping directly onto their hearts. And for the first time in his life, Kavuk was made to feel insecure. He was afraid for his life.

Grievous suddenly attacked, dropping from the wreckage above and brandishing two lightsabers. The Jedi were forced to distance themselves before re-engaging. Most of them tried their best to battle the cyborg but their injuries and exhaustion made them weak.

Grievous saw this and took advantage of it. Using his superior physical strength, he knocked away all of the Jedi before focusing his attention on Master Mundi. Grievous knew that if he fell, so did the rest of the Jedi.

The Jedi Master promptly leaped onto a ledge above and launched a powerful Force push at Grievous. The cyborg quickly dodged, leaping onto one of the larger pieces of wreckage and using it as a springboard to launch himself back at the Jedi.

Landing in a crouch, Grievous was promptly engaged by K'Kruhk. Despite K'Kruhk's tenacity, Grievous defeated him with two quick blows before leaving the Jedi for dead.

Grievous turned to the other Jedi. After defending himself against a telekinetic assault by Shaak Ti and Kavuk's discblades, Grievous grabbed Tarr Seirr with his clawed foot and crushed the young Cerean's head against the ground. As Aayla Secura charged, Grievous grabbed her with his other foot and performed a backflip, throwing her into the ceiling along with Seirr's corpse.

"Aayla!"

"Focus, Anurai!" Mundi commanded Kavuk

There were only the 3 of them left standing. They needed to work together.

The two Masters and single Knight charged at the Cyborg together. They each unleashed blow after blow in coordination with one another but they were unable to break through Grievous' defense. The first to be knocked away was Kavuk.

Grievous kicked the Na'vi in the face and sent him flying.

During the short moment when Kavuk was knocked out, Master Mundi had also been knocked away which left Shaak Ti to face the cyborg alone. The Togruta was able to block several blows before her lightsaber was knocked away. When Grevious was about to slash her once more and finish her off, she was able to use the Force to protect herself but was still knocked away and into the wreckage.

Kavuk stood up and threw his discblades at the cyborg but when they met his lightsabers, they were cut into pieces due to Kavuk being unable to reinforce them with the Force.

"No. Just go ahead and destroy the mementos my father left me. That's perfectly fine with me," Kavuk spoke sarcastically before getting into the Niman stance with his Force-Blade.

Across from him, Mundi also stood up and readied his blade in the Ataru stance.

"Be ready, young Anurai. We must slay him here and now."

Grievous turned to Kavuk before looking the taller Jedi up and down.

"General Anurai. So you were the one that foiled my plans to conquer Kimino last month. It is a shame that you do not carry a lightsaber. I would have loved to have it within my collection."

"I'll build one after this battle. You can try and collect it the next time we battle."

"There will be no next time, Jedi."

Grievous did not break eye contact with Kavuk as he jumped backward and into Mundi's range taking both Jedi by surprise.

Kavuk hurried to catch up but he was too injured to match the cyborg's speed. By the time he reach the other side, Mundi had lost both of his hands and was about to be beheaded. Kavuk's blade arrived just in time to stop Grievous from beheading the Jedi Master.

Grievous kicked away Mundi with one of his feet before turning his full attention on Kavuk.

"It is time that you die, Jedi!"

The duo clashed once more. Blow after blow struck their opponent's weapon. Kavuk used his superior height and build to leverage himself as much as he could against his smaller yet stronger opponent. But no matter what, Kavuk would not be able to defeat Grievous.

Just as he was about to accept his death, Kavuk heard blaster fire outside of the ship. The droids would only open fire under one circumstance.

'Reinforcements!'

Just as he thought this, there was a loud explosion in the side of the ship before a custom LAAT emerged. The gunship immediately opened fire on Grievous while 11 Alpha ARC troopers descended.

"Fordo! You're late!" Kavuk joked. The death that was fast approaching him had disappeared.

"Sorry about that, General. Your orders?"

"4 ARCS are to secure Mundi, Ti, Secura, and K'Kruhk. The rest shall help me and the gunship distract the enemy."

Kavuk knew that even with reinforcements, they wouldn't be able to kill Grievous. If they pushed him too far, he would just have his army of droids attack the ships and kill them all while he retreated.

And that was exactly was Grievous was contemplating when he saw the reinforcements arrive. But when he heard Kavuk's orders, he relaxed.

'Even I cannot guarantee I would escape before these ruins collapse on me. Let us meet again on another battlefield, General Anurai.'

The battle that started in loud chaos ended on an almost peaceful note as Kavuk and the ARC troopers loaded the surviving Jedi into the ship without much trouble before they fled from the system.

As they were leaving the atmosphere, Kavuk looked down on the wreckage and saw the white figure of Grievous exiting the ruins with the dead bodies of the 3 Jedi they had left behind.

'Next time, Grievous. I will claim your head myself.'